GIs stumble on millions of dollars in Baghdad

BAGHDAD — Two Army sergeants went searching for saws Friday to clear away branches that were blocking their Humvees. But they stumbled across a sealed cottage that aroused their curiosity and ultimately led to the discovery of about $650 million in cash.

The sergeants tore down a cinder block and concrete barricade blocking the cottage door and found 40 sealed, galvanized aluminum boxes lined up neatly on the stone floor. Breaking open one box, they were stunned to discover 40 sealed stacks of uncirculated $100 bills--$100,000 per stack, or $4 million in the box. In all, the 40 boxes were assumed to contain $160 million.

But there was more.

In an adjacent cottage in an exclusive Tigris River neighborhood where senior Baath Party and Republican Guard officials had lived, the sergeants found another 40 aluminum boxes assumed to contain another $160 million in currency.

Their discovery set off a nighttime search of abandoned mansion estates tucked among parks and canals. By 11 p.m., soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division had found two more cottages containing at least 84 more boxes presumed to hold $336 million in cash, for a total of about $656 million.

The loot apparently was hidden by fleeing Baath Party members and senior Republican Guard commanders who had lived in the wooded neighborhood just east of Saddam Hussein's presidential palace. Commanders scrambled to secure the area overnight before word of the discoveries triggered a crush of fortune seekers.

Officials did not confirm immediately that the currency was legal tender, but an Army private here who said he had worked for an armored car company examined the bills and called them genuine.

A Treasury Department spokesman offered assurances that any cash retrieved would be held aside for the Iraqis.